Ales Mikhalevich. Photo: michalevic.orgAles Mikhalevich, an opposition candidate in December’s presidential election, has fled Belarus, media reports.
Last night, the dissident leader revealed on his blog that he was “already beyond the range of the activity of the Belarusian KGB,” sparking a frenzy of speculation that he had broken the country’s borders.
Like six other opposition candidates for the presidency, and approximately 700 dissidents, Mikhalevich was detained following the public protests in Minsk which took place on 19 December following the presidential elections there.
Dissidents claimed that the 80 percent majority that long-standing leader Alexander Lukashenko had achieved was the result of vote-rigging.
The regime blamed the unrest on ‘drunken provocateurs’.
Pending charges that could prompt a fifteen year prison sentence, Mikhalevich was temporarily released on 19 February on the condition that he remained in the country.
That same day, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski declared in a speech at Harvard University that Lukashenko's regime is “a dictatorship which lets out political prisoners from jail only after having tortured them and extorted a promise to spy on other opposition colleagues.”
Sikorski added that “that’s what happened today to Ales Mikhalevich.”
Referring to his movements, Mikhalevich testified on his blog last night that “only one reason exists that justifies my steps – that is real physical danger.”
“Everyone knows that these people are capable of anything,” he continued, “and that in their way of functioning, there is no law or openness.”
Chiming in with Sikorski’s remarks, Mikhalevich claimed that the KGB was trying to make him lead “investigative work,” which he had no intention of doing.
According to Polish journalists in Minsk, the dissident leader’s wife, Mikhalana Mikhalevich claims that she does not know where her husband is. The couple have two children. (nh/jb)
Source: PAP/Harvard